Lessons learned

The COY11 gathered youth organizations from across the globe with the aim of sharing best practices about how to take action to implement solutions to the problems produced by climate change.

Our team attended the following sessions:

IFMSA: Climate Change and Health

The International Federation of Medical Students Associations presented a workshop on project and goal building, with a focus on projects related to climate change and health. Participants were taught the necessary steps to create a project, how to define the goals, analyze the strengths and identify stakeholders, and were presented with the proper tactics to use when confronted with obstacles.

Monde Pluriel: The Notion of Responsibility – What can the youth do?

Monde Pluriel, an education NGO based in France, offered a workshop on the responsibility of youth as it relates the subject of climate change. They worked with participants to find a definition of the word responsibility in the context of climate change, and discussed advocacy and outreach strategies that can be employed by young people when trying to raise awareness about the issue.

Our focus was to gather best practices and approaches and share them with the Boston area groups—particularly youth groups—who are working to combat climate change and encourage sustainability. We will share the primary takeaways from the conference with the attendee from the youth climate dialogue.

Climate Change Allies

During COY11, our team had the opportunity to connect with staff from Global Potential Paris and several other organizations from the COY11 conference, including: The International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IMSA), The Water Youth Network, Ingénieurs Sans Frontière, and Monde Pluriel.

Here are the names of the contacts we made from Global Potential France: Selina Komers, Huw Hides, Beth Watson, Amina Boschetti and Arnold de Souza.

Interfaith Youth Dialogue

During COY11, we had the opportunity to listen to a Buddhist teacher and founder of the Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation, Sulak Sivaraska, as he gave a talk entitled “Inequality, Violence and Climate Change through a Buddhist Lens.” Mr. Sivaraska spoke on, among other things, the interconnectedness of all beings as opposed to the illusion of separation, and the responsibility that we all have to the Earth as creatures of the Earth. He spoke on the evils that we must navigate during our time here, specifically greed as it relates to inequality, and suggested that each person take a few silent minutes each day to reflect on the way they live and contemplate how they can add more value to the planet.

Our dialogue in Boston had a similar piece; we had students from the Center for Spirituality, Dialogue and Service (CSDS) here at Northeastern speak on their religions view as it relates to climate change. One student offered an Islamic perspective, while two students came and spoke on the Buddhist perspective.

Below are some other photos from the Press Start Dialogues in Albi (South of France) and Paris :